Another Quetion

[Nemesis-to-Mayhem]

I see many difrent builds of our lords and hero's,

this is an overall question about playing as a Vampire Count Army

is it best to field as many core units so we dont rely on using our magic phase to summon? should we field Combat Vampires (who can still use magic) and then fit them with ex. Blood Drinker to slowly add to our units?

my question is, now that magic is so strong but also very dangerous (would suck to get our General blown to pieces in raising zombies ) should we use magic with care and give our vampires the equipment to kick ass and "support with magic" or is magic still so important for us so we need our Vampires to cast, cast and cast?

what is your aproach to this?

if it helps, im fielding 30+ size units of Ghouls, Black Coach, Wraith's, for a 2000 pts army, think im going for 1 hero 1 lord...

 

[bored1]

In short...no. Or, I should say, not in my mind.

Magic is the one clear advantage we have over most armies. Relying on masses of expensive, crappy troops is not really all that efficient. Our best core choice, ghouls, can't bring banners and have no armor. We also don't have magic items that excel in combat per se. The common ones aren't bad, but it is expensive for us to even field great weapon wielding heroes. We have decent to good combat characters (particularly lords), but not the best, and especially not per point. We're paying points for the magic anyway...make use of it.

 

[Swissdictator]

My theory in 6th and 7th was to have minimal number of units, but to start them decently sized (IE: 25 skeletons in those days). Now, with points as opposed to number of units, I'd operate 1-2 units (Ghouls or Skeletons) and make them even bigger.

Edit
I write the above, so if my magic failed to a degree, I could still work as an army.

In a 2000 points game you *could* run one HUGE Skeleton unit (say 50-60) so even a rough turn of combat, you should have plenty of left over. Throw in the Drakenhoff banner, and it'll be a real pain to cut through that unit (granted we don't regen crumble, but with less wounds getting through, the crumble is still softer). If you don't want to run one big enough to soak up ALL the the core points, toss in a zombie unit to fill it out... giving you a (albeit fragile) unit that can have some bulk. If you do take the Zombies, I'd consider the Sceptre de Noirot... or just write them off as an expendable unit.

Lord with Red Fury + Blood Drinker is always a useful combo, regardless of the unit you put him in... especially with Infinite Hatred. S5 will cut through most opponents with ease. If going into Skeletons, the Tomb Blade can work well too. With one of these (especially Blood Drinker as he can heal himself or other characters in the unit), you're going to have a *tough* unit to crack.

I used to run a Vampire Hero with the Helm. Granted, it might reduce my Lord's WS if I remember right, but making the unit WS6 is huge. Especially these days where making it that much harder to hit adds up even faster than before, due to the quantity of attacks these days. So that's another consideration.

Augmenting our units is more important than ever, or weakening our opponents. Thus items like Banner of the Barrows (for our Wights), Helm of Commandment, etc are more useful than ever... not that they weren't good before.


Other things to keep in mind
While having a big bulky Skeleton unit that's harder to kill (Drakenhoff, Vamp w/ Tomb Blade or Lord w/ Blood Drinker)... if that's the heart of your army it either has a huge bullseye on it or is avoided. You need other units to threaten the enemy with. Wraiths, Blood Knights, Grave Guard are all three good examples. So make sure you have enough left over to be potent elsewhere.

 

[Ricey]

With 8e focusing more on hordes and big blocks of infantry fighting, I'm gonna have to say no and no. Personally, I feel the support vampire is the way to go, with a Helm of Commandment being a must on him. Forbidden Lore (Beasts or Light), Staff of Damnation, and the appropriate Master vampiric power are in my opinion necessities for said support role. Although the Red Fury+Infinite Hatred+whatever nasty sword you can pop on him is nice, I feel that we really can't afford to send our Lords in like that. Again, different armies call for different builds, and if you have a feel of what your local area plays, you can probably tailor a list to go against them. But for overall performance, support vamp takes the cake for me.

 

[Cobra7]

I have tried caster lords, support lords and combat lords.

I have tried lots of small units and lesser large units.

My experence with how I play best and the way the people in my area play, is to take large blocks of troops with combat vamps and do my best to shut down the magic phase and roll with the spells that get me.

Pretty much make every army you play with different, and when you see something that works a few times in a row, keep it and change everything else. That got me to a total of 6 or 7 units in my 3k matches, that I normally win with.

I lost lots of games figuring out how to play them, now I'm reaping the rewards :tongue: I suggest you try the same.

 

[TobinRoss89]

I have found getting your core filled up with ghouls and maybe one unit of skeletons with a cool banner with maybe a vampire or two and cheap wight kings.